804 



TURKEY. 



which took place in European Turkey. Rus- 

 sia has massed in Russian Armenia an army 

 which is said to number seventy thousand 

 troops, exclusive of the necessary garrisons. 

 This suspicious movement was met by strength- 

 ening the Turkish force in that region, and ex- 

 tending the fortifications at Erzerum, so as to 

 make it a fortress of the first class. 



The hopes of the Sultan of soon reorganizing 

 his empire on the basis of Islamic ideas seemed 

 to decline as the year advanced. In May a 

 circular to the powers demanded that the con- 

 sular courts should be abolished, and the rights 

 of foreigners in civil and criminal cases con- 

 fided to the jurisdiction of the national tribu- 

 nals a demand which was subsequently not 

 pressed. The Sultan called to his aid German 

 experts to help arrange the ways and means 

 and the technical details of reforms in the mili- 

 tary organization, finances, and civil adminis- 

 tration of the empire, which would develop 

 the Mohammedan character of the Ottoman 

 state, and at the same time satisfy Europe and 

 preclude future interference. Three important 

 commissions were appointed to investigate ques- 

 tions of administrative reform, which entered 

 upon their labors in the autumn. The first, 

 consisting of the Finance Minister, Munir Pa- 

 sha, and the two Germans, Wettendorf Pasha 

 and Bertram Effendi, was to elaborate a scheme 

 for the organization of a new system of finance. 

 Another of the commissions, composed of the 

 Sheik-ul-Islara and the Minister of Justice, 

 Djevdet Pasha, occupies itself with legal re- 

 forms, including a scheme of abolishing the 

 extra-territorial jurisdiction of the powers in 

 criminal cases. One of the results of the Is- 

 lamic policy pursued by Abdul- Hamid has been 

 the withdrawal of European capital from the 

 country, the outflow of specie, a decline in the 

 value of real estate, and a period of commer- 

 cial stagnation, enforced idleness, and popular 

 misery. European speculators continued to 

 clamor for railroad concessions, for the deliv- 

 ery of the undeveloped mines of the country 

 into their hands, and for other privileges ; but 

 the Sultan refuses to grant any commercial con- 

 cessions or opportunities, particularly in Ana- 

 tolia. 



At the end of November a conspiracy to kill 

 or depose Abdul-Hamid was reported to him. 

 In the panic which ensued, the ministry was 

 dismissed, and for several days every one was 

 held in suspicion. Achmet Vefyk, a former 

 Grand Vizier, whom Said Pasha had a few 

 weeks before dismissed from the governorship 

 of Broussa for disobedience, was appointed to 

 succeed him as First Minister. Two days after- 

 ward Said was again recalled and the former 

 ministers reappointed, including Mahmud Ne- 

 dim, the Minister of the Interior, Said's deter- 

 mined enemy, through whose intrigues, in a 

 great measure, his dismissal had both times 

 been brought about. 



The Mohammedan religious ferment of the 

 last few years, which Abdul-Hamid has en- 



couraged in order to divert to his own support 

 as the spiritual head of Islam and strengthen 

 his waning power, turned out to be a source of 

 weakness instead. Owing to his inability to 

 prevent the French from annexing Tunis or the 

 English from conquering Egypt, the Arab races 

 in Asia and Africa manifested a disposition to 

 reject the authority of the Ottoman Caliph. 

 A dangerous agitation broke out in Arabia dur- 

 ing the Egyptian War. The Grand Shereef of 

 Mecca, Abdul-Moutahib, encouraged by Arabi 

 Pasha, conceived the idea of heading a rebel- 

 lion against the Sultan and proclaiming himself 

 Caliph. Great excitement prevailed among the 

 Hedjaz and Bedouin tribes ; but before there 

 was any open insurrection the aged Shereef 

 was deposed by order of the Sultan and placed 

 in confinement. Abdullah Doun Pasha was 

 commissioned to officiate pending the appoint- 

 ment of a new Shereef. His brother, Aoun 

 Refik, was selected by the Caliph in Septem- 

 ber. When he arrived, his brother tried to 

 make use of the popular disaffection to main- 

 tain himself in the position. Aoun Refik is a 

 younger brother of Shereef Hussein, who was 

 assassinated in 1879 at Jeddah. The new 

 Grand Shereef is esteemed a refined and en- 

 lightened man, entirely free from bigotry. 



While the Arabs of Yemen and the Hedjaz 

 manifested a spirit of rebellion which has not 

 been seen since the opening of the Suez Canal 

 enabled the Turkish Government to send iron- 

 clads to the Red Sea, the Tripolitans exhibited 

 similar signs of discontent and sedition. The 

 African Mussulmans, more fanatical than their 

 fellow-believers in Arabia, are attracted to the 

 pretended Mahdi, Muhamed-es-Seuoussi, who 

 from the heart of the Libyan Desert exerts a 

 secret and formidable power throughout North 

 Africa, and causes much anxiety to the French 

 in Tunis and Algiers. The fact that on No- 

 vember 12, 1882, commences the year of proph- 

 ecy in which a Moslem Messiah is to appear, is 

 one cause of the unusual excitement through- 

 out the Ottoman Empire. Arabi Pasha was 

 deemed by some to be the destined deliverer. 

 The chief Senoussi, who pretends to exhibit 

 all the signs of the prophecy, being in the for- 

 tieth year of his age, the son of a Muhamed and 

 a Fatima, with arms of extraordinary length, 

 etc., is abler than the rival Mahdi who defies 

 the military power of the Egyptian Govern- 

 ment in the Soodan (see EGYPT). 



The Kurdish Sheik Obeidullah, whose fo- 

 rays in Northwest Persia, in 1880, threatened 

 to provoke hostilities between the Sultan and 

 the Shah, and who on one of his marauding ex- 

 peditions threatened the important city of Ta- 

 breez, came to Constantinople and^surrendered 

 himself upon the summons of the Sultan in the 

 latter part of 1881. His followers ceased their 

 depredations while their chieftain was kept as 

 a hostage at Constantinople. At the end of 

 the summer of 1882 he was allowed to escape, 

 and went back to the abode of his tribe in the 

 region of Lake Van. He afterward consented 



